I am a teacher, and at school I borrowed a DVD player from the technology center for a class I was giving. It was not clear which way the dvd was to be inserted into the machine, and there were no instructions in the box. I asked another teacher standing next to me which way the dvd gets inserted into the machine, and he didn’t know either. So I put the DVD in, and I was wrong on the way to put it in, and the DVD got stuck in the machine and broke it. The school now needs to buy a new machine. Am I chayav to pay for the new machine?
Answer:
While the teacher is technically responsible to pay, it would proper for the institution to not demand pay and sustain the loss.
Sources:
Shulchan Aruch Harav, Sheila Vsechirus 19
Shu”t Chavos Yair 169
